Advice for "old and expensive" teachers

[Gagagardener]

A few years ago, a couple in my family moved to an expensive rural village with poor transport links for a well-paying private school job for the main earner..That post was made redundant last summer. The former 'main earner' has picked up some supply work in cities about 20 miles away, and quite a lot of seasonal online tutoring.

The partner's job is 3 days a week working for the local authority's 'medical education service". This is peripatetic work, using own car, preparing children who don't/won't school attend on medical grounds for GCSE exams; so 'inclusion'. That service is now being slashed. Choices are applying for the only subject-specific post to be retained, or redundancy.

Desperate times. They have a mortgage to pay and 3 children in primary school. They have to have two cars to be able to work. In teaching terms, they are "old and expensive". One has a PhD, the other an MA.

I find it hard to believe how harsh things are.

Tell me how to reframe "old and expensive" for them positively for job applications.

The thing they have above a newly qualified teacher is years of experience. In some schools that would be the distinct advantage. Teaching jobs can be hard to fill so they just need to apply with that positive mindset.

Experienced and offering great value

I’d suggest moving abroad - if they bother jobs at the same school they’d have their school fees covered. Best thing we did.

*both get

Pretty much no hope in today's teaching climate. Schools have no budget, next year's pay rises are set to be unfunded and newly qualified teachers are significantly cheaper. That being said, pay portability is no longer a thing and they could probably get a job in another school if they are willing to take a hefty pay cut back to the main scale.

Can anyone put into words why the education has become so unfriendly to teachers and pupils alike?

We get really excited when experienced teachers apply for vacancies - they don’t need mentoring or extra timetable reductions. A half decent one is worth their weight in gold! I don’t buy into the whole ‘get rid of the experienced/expensive’ teachers - I’ve never personally seen it.

Independent school are more likely to hire more experienced teachers. They still hire new teachers too but value the mix of experience and youth. It also depends on the subject (mine is a shortage subject)

Look at higher end tutor providers. Online and significantly higher paid than the state sector. Or online schools, like Minerva. Home edders also use online tutoring which is less seasonal, but go for the high end.
You have the qualifications to get a higher rate.

What are their subject specialisms?

Online teaching eg Kings Inter high etc?

Budget. Education has been underfunded since the Conservatives took over in 2010 and now Labour can’t ’catch up’.

@ThanksItHasPockets Both are English teachers. @Coffeeismyfriend1 They're wary of independent sector now. 'Main earner' secured a post during the holidays in a school that closed between the offer being made and the start of the following term. @Fallulah I hope other schools share your attitude! @Ruralmummy25 your username makes me think you may have personal experience of this kind of thing - am I right? I'll pass on the name Minerva, and @User3456 's suggestion. Thank you all for your suggestions; I don't think 'abroad' is likely as one of the children has frequent hospital appointments. But if they did go, I cd follow...

Teaching has become an increasingly overwhelming profession with rising workloads high expectations and constant pressure from inspections. Teachers are expected to juggle many responsibilities at once often without enough time to properly plan and prepare which means many of them along with teaching assistants end up working extra hours unpaid just to keep up. On top of this some face verbal and even physical abuse from students while also supporting a growing number of children with SEND whose needs cannot always be met in mainstream settings. SENCOs are stretched to their limits and teachers are no longer just educators. They are also first aiders social workers counsellors role models and a source of care and stability for children who may not have that support at home. After the school day ends the work continues with marking paperwork lesson planning and preparing resources often followed by being told they are still not doing enough. Despite all this starting salaries are around £33000 and when the extra hours are taken into account even experienced teachers can find their hourly rate works out below minimum wage. It is a really sad and unsustainable situation. Follow Mr P on tik tok he often talks about this to raise awareness about the state of education sector in the UK.

And to top it all up, you’re not allowed to have days off to see your daughter’s sports day as a one off, and you get told off by SLT for having a doctor’s appointment for which you have waiting for for months.

Depends on the subject, English and maths maybe.

As very experienced and well qualified English teachers, they are well placed to do online tutoring to international students. Some parts of the world (Singapore, Dubai, China) will pay up to £150 an hour for a brilliant tutor.

It would help if they were experienced with International Baccalaureate and if they were examiners.

I manage on between 20 & 25 hours of tutoring a week. But I could easily do 40 if I wanted the work. I certainly make a teachers salary.

A friend of mine is an English teacher in her late 50s. She went back to the state sector last year, having been at an independent for a few years.

The school wanted an experienced teacher and were happy to pay her on UPS 3. It can be done.

Can you give an approximate idea of their location? English is becoming a shortage subject. There are more than 200 secondary teacher of English vacancies across England on the Gov teaching vacancies website at the moment, and we’re not even in peak recruitment season yet. This sounds like it might be partly a geographical issue.

My main advice would be for them to apply for promoted roles commensurate with their experience and to lift themselves out of competition with cheaper ECTs for main scale / UPS classroom teacher roles (although schools know that ECTs come with other costs): head or second of department, lead practitioner, etc.

Well spotted, yes I do. We are rural with a lot of independent schools which are obviously not as safe as they once were. Lots of children who have left independent sector due to fee rises and the limited state provision, we a choice of one school or drive a minimum of 40 minutes to the next closest, we have no SEND provision, plus personal choice means we have a high home ed community.
Look for the high end tutor agencies, they deal with everything for you. To be clear I'm not talking about tutoring to get a child through their GCSE Maths/English although that is some of the jobs. I'm talking the additional tutoring that many, many independent school children have to get them into the most competitive schools and the common entrance exam which needs a wide variety of subjects. Parents start choosing schools and the prep in Y3/4/5 for entrance in Y9 so less seasonal and longer than the traditional state school scramble for a tutor after mock exams/ September of Y11. Parents are demanding but the pay is good. One family I know was paying £100 p/hr per subject, three subjects each night with tutoring five nights a week online for one child. This is on top of being at an expensive prep school, and yes the child was exhausted. This is not as rare as you'd think.

Don't get me started on appointments! I was granted no time to visit my doctor when I needed to, but when I finally collapsed at work I was chastised for coming to work ill. The whole system and attitudes of those at the top are laughable.

Look at tutoring international students. Far east parents will love the PHD etc. time difference means day time work

also look at EOTAS and alternative provision online

Exactly this. Singapore parents will pay up to £150 an hour for tutoring with an expert teacher. And UK teachers are very very highly valued internationally (unlike in the UK!).

As another poster has said, it is about finding the right agency.

It’s about budgets - ‘old’ teachers cost money and schools don’t have enough of that. Some schools have masses on UPS and it’s costing them a fortune. Blame the system!

Could it be worth exploring the primary sector, if that would be of interest? I'm not sure what training would be required but presume that there are more, smaller schools.